In the final blog in our series highlighting what you need to consider when changing your role or career, we look at what you need to do when you receive new job offers, negotiate a package that suits you and make a lasting impression in your new position. In the previous blog we looked at how to build a personal brand and how you will be found by potential recruiters, looking beyond a well-crafted CV and into the multiple social media channels that support your professional profile. This final stage, perform, is another exciting phase for those we support to change roles and find career success. At this point we have worked through the previous stages – coming to terms with redundancy or leaving your role, exploring new options and shaping your brand and seeking offers – and the people we support are now getting new job offers and making career decisions. At this point, we’ve supported clients to make sure they can secure two or three good offers. However, this is the time that needs the most careful consideration and our role is to help people work through the thought process as they decide which direction to take. We work with people to look back at Explore to understand what their ideal role would be. Together, we consider the best fit from the offers received and also look at what the compromises will be. This can be challenging as the temptation is often to go for the best-looking job and there is a danger that you don’t properly consider the compromises or the potential consequences. For example, in...

A glittering career as a professional footballer is almost every boy’s dream. The opportunity to earn a handsome wage playing the game you love for club or even country makes becoming a professional footballer the top career goal for boys in this country. But while the rewards of a football career can be high, the career itself is short. “The biggest attrition rate is undoubtedly among young players,” says Oshor Williams of the PFA’s education department. “Most of these kids don’t have a Plan B. It can be very unnerving to find yourself having to move into a completely different world.” Planning ahead and considering a life after football is therefore crucial to keep options open and create future opportunities, whatever direction a young football player’s career might take. Thankfully there is support available to help with this. So what steps can a young professional footballer and their parents take now, and what aspects should be considered? Start planning for the future today As academy scholars and professional club players, footballers receive a great deal of support and training. When players are released, that support can end abruptly. It is therefore important to begin planning early while resources are available. Make use of the support while it is available. Parents and young players should ask their club what post-football career support is available, and how to access it. Find out what training opportunities are available through League Football Education (LFE), the academy training partnership set up by The Football League and The Professional Footballers’ Association. But also ask for details of other support networks and organisations like New Leaf...

For many, when their child is spotted by a scout for a professional football club and is selected to be groomed as a future football star, it is a dream come true. Parents get to see their child start on a journey to fulfil their ambitions and fantasise about future glory and six-figure salaries that will secure them for life. However, what should parents consider when their child joins a football academy? What can a parent expect when their child is signed by a professional football club? How do they plan for an academy star’s future and what are the options if their child is released by an academy or the child decides on a career away from football? One of the biggest difficulties families face when a child is selected to join the academies of professional football clubs is that the child’s career very quickly can become the families career. In many cases parents have to change jobs and relocate and the whole family has to make sacrifices. It puts an enormous burden on the young academy star and the consequences of them not succeeding and being released by the club can have far-reaching knock-on effects for the whole family. Newleaf specialises in helping academy players and professional footballers to find new careers and succeed in life after football. Here we share five rules for parents with children who have been spotted by a football academy. Understand the realities of football academies All too often I hear parents at football academies joking that “that’s my pension playing out there”. While it’s just light-hearted fun, parents must fully understand...

In football, when academy players or professional players are rejected and released from their clubs, the consequences on the remainder of their life can be devastating. In the game, the moment they are dropped and told they don’t have a future in football is known as “the red, misty-eyed moment in the car park.” After years of dedication players as young as 16 are told their dreams are over and they are cast adrift with little or no idea of what they can do next. Professional football clubs and soccer academies now do what they can to support young people and players through this process, but few have the skills, resources and training they need to manage this extremely challenging transition to life beyond the game. For the player or academy star, the world they know has gone and their dreams and ambitions are left in tatters. At Newleaf, we know first-hand how devastating this can be. We specialise is helping players through this transition and support them to create a new prosperous and fulfilling future. Common problems for footballers who are released Players are recruited by football clubs and academies at just nine-years-old. For the next seven years they will receive expert training and guidance to become professional players. However, at 16, more than half will be released and told they won’t go any further. At 19, when they finally get contracts with a club, just one per cent of those who started at nine will succeed. In the world of professional football, around 700 players each year in the UK are released by clubs and told their...

The football career pathway is tough and highly competitive. It’s also very short. The Premier League and Football League say between 60% and 65% of the 700 or so scholars taken on each year are rejected at 18. Half of those who do win a full-time contract will not be playing at a professional level by 21, according to the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA). Even successful professional footballers often retire at an age when the careers of those in business are usually just starting to take off. Former Crystal Palace midfielder Gavin Heeroo knows only too well how quickly the outlook can change. After being released in 2004, he developed a gambling addiction. “I think there’s a lack of support [for young players],” he says. “Organisations need to be more accountable. I always strongly believed that if football didn’t work out, I could do anything I put my mind to. Other kids might not be so lucky.” Gavin conquered his betting habit with the help of the Sporting Chance clinic and now runs his own business. But what can the football industry as a whole do differently to better support players during and after their football career? By drawing parallels with other industries and their HR, recruitment, training and development and career transition practices, football clubs and academies can examine and implement best practice to provide better structures and support. 1 The recruitment process The heavily regulated recruitment industry in the UK means that the recruitment process for businesses is required to be robust and fair. Candidates are given multiple opportunities to show employers what they can do. Recruitment...

This is the 4th in our series outlining how Newleaf supports our clients through career transition. In our last brief we highlighted the importance of achieving real clarity on what a next move should be. Equipped with this, clients will be able to streamline their search and really focus on doing a brilliant job of securing those roles they do go for. If a client thinks that a great CV, strong track record and charming personality are enough to secure their next move – they need to think again. The recruitment market is fast changing. Most people we meet have not been in the job market for at least 3 years, and for some of our clients this is much longer. Let’s just consider some of the changes that have happened in recent years: Increased use of social media sites Digital job boards and career sites LinkedIn Video interviewing On line psychometric tests Pre screening and testing on mobile devices Strengths based profiling and selection We try to equip our clients with an up to date understanding of the different types of recruitment processes that they may be subjected to in today’s recruitment market. From the very beginning, we encourage clients to consider their personal brand. Determine what impact they want to create and what steps they are taking to achieve this. How do you present yourself in writing, on the telephone, face-to-face, both one on one and in groups? Dodgy e-mail addresses, rudimentary typing mistakes, unclear verbal communication and unfortunate personal presentation are all too common. Food stuck in teeth, ill fitting or inappropriate clothes and overpowering odours...

In the 3rd of our series about how Newleaf supports our clients through career transition, we share the importance of taking time to establish real clarity on the next career move. Explore and clarify your next career move I had a wise grandmother who had lived through 2 world wars, was a career woman and knew how to enjoy herself. I have many fond memories of her and one piece of advice always sticks in my mind, “Make sure you have no regrets by the time you get to my age” (then in her 80’s). This is at the front of my mind when supporting clients to identify their next career move. Many of our clients are facing the prospect of a career change prompted by redundancy. Whilst this is not always welcomed, for the vast majority of our clients this turns into a positive opportunity. Very often, for the first time in their lives they are being asked, “So what do you REALLY want to do?” We provide some tools and techniques to stimulate and process their thinking, coupled with high quality attention. We encourage them to explore their thoughts about what they may, could, perhaps dream of doing. Some people feel that indulging in this kind of thought process is a luxury they don’t have time for when concerned about how they will pay the mortgage in a few months. My advice, you can’t not afford the time. A few years ago I had an initial meeting with a client. They was clearly anxious about how they would support their family and before meeting had diligently been applying...

If you are personally facing the prospect of redundancy or you are a Company having to make the tough decision to make others redundant then we really recommend you follow this series of blogs and see how Newleaf enables our clients to face into this transition and achieve positive success. Position yourself for positive change In my many years experience in HR I think I have witnessed a broad range of responses to redundancy: ‘How am I going to pay my mortgage?’ ‘No-one will employ me at my age.’ ‘I’ve only ever done this, I can’t do anything else!’ ‘I don’t know how to tell my family.’ ‘I don’t understand why this has happened to me.’ Redundancy is one of life’s top 5 most stressful events, so ensuring you or your employees get the right support is a key part of your social responsibility. So, what support do we offer in this potentially traumatic initial phase of career transition support? Firstly, we listen. With a confidential and empathetic ear is a good starting point. We offer independent, confidential and non- judgemental support through strong rapport and high quality listening. Ranting, venting, crying and rationalising are all absolutely encouraged – we prefer to hear this rather than potential future networking contacts. We then need to move from a counselling role into a coaching role to enable our clients to move forward. This is a delicate process and as seasoned professionals our team read this well. We support our clients to achieve a good exit from their current employer as this is an important step in terms of closure, self-respect and...

As a seasoned HR Director and now the proud MD of Newleaf Limited, I am passionate about providing results focussed outplacement support. Putting people through a process and pretending we have done our job is just not what we are about in Newleaf. Our results speak for themselves: With our help, 97% of employees displaced in a recent factory closure found their next career step in just 3 months. When we analysed what makes our approach so successful, the following became clear: Our approach is flexible to the needs of the individual’s we work with (i.e. it is NOT formulaic – even when we work with large groups) We enable and empower our clients to drive their own success We support and facilitate our clients through 4 distinct phases using strong coaching skills and domain expertise. This is the first of a series of blogs where we will explore these phases in more detail. Let’s start with an overview. Phase 1: Stabilise – Positioning yourself for Positive Change There’s no denying that being made redundant is very stressful and can induce feelings of panic and anger. Here we provide a confidential space to enable our clients to get their head round what can sometimes be a traumatic transition, even if it was their decision to leave. It is essential to face this otherwise there is a real danger of people turning up for their next job interview full of baggage and offloading latent feelings of bitterness about their situation. Understandable – but not what an interviewer wants to hear! Phase 2: Explore: So what do you really want to...

Susan Binnersley – Founding Director and Career Coach As an HR professional operating largely in UK manufacturing for over 20 years I have clocked up a vast amount of experience in the field of redundancy management. I have had people responsibility for several site closures, whole business restructuring to factor in new capabilities and have managed many senior leaders out of businesses, including even my own CEO. It would be macabre to suggest I take pleasure in this, but what I do pride myself with is that if tough decisions have to be made, then the people affected are treated as individuals, with respect and with support to move on to pastures new. In all of these situations, I have parted with people on good terms, with a genuine handshake and mutual respect in tact. For the past 10 years I have had the opportunity to use this experience in a very tangible and constructive way by providing meaningful and bespoke outplacement support and career transition coaching to companies and their employees also going through redundancy and restructuring. In Newleaf we enable individuals facing redundancy to come to terms with this stressful situation (it’s up there as 1 of 5 of life’s most stressful events). We support them in exploring what they really want to do next and then offer them honest and pragmatic support to find this new role. So why should companies, already potentially facing financial hardship, bother to fund this support for their departing employees? Well – here are 6 good reasons. It’s morally the right thing to do – if you...